STOP Freaking Out!

Friends have been posting their first-day-of-school pictures and sharing their excitement, trepidation and joy at seeing their little ones off to preschool, kindergarten, first grade or their oldest off to tackle high school.

Yet here I sit, still deciding on what curriculum to use for Joe’s first day of ‘pre-school-at-home’.

Here I sit, worried that I’m already late getting started.

Here I sit, still waffling, still-despite all my research-making no progress in picking that perfect curriculum that will suit Joe to a ‘T’.

Here. I. Sit.

Then, I realized and remembered that the plan doesn’t have to be perfect.

School doesn’t have to start on a certain day for us.

We don’t have to do the same things as everyone else.

“Comparison is the death of contentment.” John Powell

That doesn’t mean we get to be lazy. It doesn’t mean we get to take shortcuts. It doesn’t mean we get to do whatever we want…not really at least.

We–I have to–be organized.

I have to stop freaking out when the boys are not doing the same thing that their school friends are doing.

I have to stop wallowing in doubt, stop biting my nails, stop wondering ‘are we doing the right thing?’.

We have to put a plan together and then execute it to the best of our ability.

I’ve met with a few friends who have been in the trenches of homeschooling.

I’ve found a mentor.

I’ve pulled books I had purchased on curriculum from my shelves and started reading all the pins I had saved on homeschooling.

I’ve stopped talking about forming a plan of attack and started laying said plan out, not in my head, on paper.

And, for the most part, I’ve stopped freaking out.

(Or at least I’ve tried to.)

Tense shoulders and neck
Freaking out about homeschool
Stop! Go with your gut